


this is nothing

by tolvsmol



Category: All For the Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Car Accidents, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, Marriage of Convenience, Minor Injuries, but all the foxes are mentioned, only neil and andrew have dialogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-08-10 20:36:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7860217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tolvsmol/pseuds/tolvsmol
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>in which andrew thinks being married is more convenient and neil agrees.</p>
            </blockquote>





	this is nothing

**Author's Note:**

> i am the absolute worst at titles i'm sorry.

Neil never intended to marry Andrew. _They_ weren't part of Neil's plan and marriage certainly wasn't. When Nathaniel was on the run, the only thing that mattered was surviving each night to see the light of the next day. Marriage was never an option, not even in a distant future. For Nathaniel, there was no concept of a _future_ . Everything happened in the here and now. Then with one signature, Nathaniel was dead and Neil Josten survived. Still, Neil never thought about marriage. He slowly let go of Nathaniel and learned to look forward to the future, but marriage was not something he needed or wanted. He had everything he wanted and the one thing he needed. But Neil or Nathaniel or whoever, he should've known life never goes as planned, especially not for a Fox. 

Some years after Neil graduated from Palmetto State, he got in a car accident. Andrew was feeling under the weather, though he refused to admit it, and Neil was driving back from the grocery store when a car swerved into the Maserati. Neil didn’t see it coming and he lost control of the wheel before he could steady his own car. He felt the impact on his head and on his side, but he didn’t know what he hit. He was aware of a stabbing pain somewhere in his body and then a moment or an hour later everything went silent and his grip on consciousness faded.

Back at the apartment, Andrew was finishing his second tub of ice cream when he got a call from a number that wasn’t saved in his contacts. His immediate thought wasn’t that Neil was in trouble; Neil had only gone grocery shopping, but that didn’t stop Andrew from feeling a jolt of panic. Neil was Neil. He was capable of landing himself in trouble in a matter of seconds. Andrew answered the phone and listened quietly with a calm facade as the person on the other end explained that Neil Josten had been rushed to the ER after having been hit by a car. Neil didn’t have any living relatives, but Andrew was his emergency contact and they would appreciate it if he could come down to the hospital. Andrew let the woman talk until he had enough information on Neil’s whereabouts and then hung up. Andrew’s car was gone, maybe even totalled, thanks to Neil, so Andrew took a cab to the hospital.

In the time that he was alone with his thoughts while waiting for the cab, Andrew let them run wild. Losing Neil was not an option for Andrew, it never had been since he'd accepted that their nothing was something. Neil had become a crutch Andrew needed to live. Before Neil, everyday was a countdown and Andrew had finally finally learned to ignore it. Instead of existing, he finally had things and people worth living for. Andrew could not afford to lose Neil now. Andrew had known that for a while now, that thought had been there in the back of his head, but admitting that to himself now was as jarring as it'd been to realize that Neil was something.

By the time Andrew arrived at the hospital, he'd collected himself and every frantic thought was carefully compartmentalized. He made his way to an information desk and asked for Neil's room and the lady working there said, "Are you family?"

Andrew's gut reaction was to tell her it was none of her business because Andrew didn't know how to answer her. Neil wasn't his _family._ He was more. So much more. "I live with him," Andrew told the woman.

"I'm sorry, but I can only give details about a patient to family members."

It would've been incredibly easy for Andrew to wring the woman's neck and squeeze out the answer he needed, but Andrew reigned in his violent instinct. She looked too much like Bee. "I'm Andrew Minyard. The only family that's coming for him."

Maybe it was Andrew's tone or maybe it was his name, but something clicked in the woman's eyes and she settled on calling Neil's doctor instead. Andrew crossed his arms and counted silently in his head as he waited for said doctor. When she arrived, she asked Andrew the same question the other woman had. Andrew might have had more restraint now than he did when he first met Neil, but he was still Andrew. His resolve was fraying every second he didn't see Neil and the urge to burn down this hospital was growing stronger. "He is my boyfriend," Andrew said finally. "He has no parents or relatives. I'm his family. Wake him up and ask him."

The woman, Dr. Pierce, smiled politely. "He's awake. I can take you to him." She led the way and Andrew followed her. Andrew had a keen dislike for hospitals. These places were plagued with memories that he would much rather forget. But life was a bitch that way. Andrew would be damned if he ever forgot anything. They stopped outside room 1003 and Dr. Pierce gestured for Andrew to enter. He did, and shut the door on her. She didn't try to come in and it was a smart choice on her part. Andrew turned his attention to the catastrophe that was Neil Josten.

Even after all these years, he attracted trouble more easily than Exy did Kevin. His head was bandaged, but that was the extent of the damage that Andrew could see. He was sure there was more, otherwise Neil wouldn't be in this bed. Andrew looked his fill and when he didn't see any more injuries, he swallowed what felt like relief. "This was not my fault," Neil said with a slightly glazed look in his eyes. He was looking at Andrew like that again, like only he did. Like Andrew was the answer to every problem in the world. "Why didn't you come sooner?"

Andrew fingered the bandage on Neil's head and turned his face to the side to inspect for dried blood or maybe locate the injury. When he found nothing, he answered Neil. "We're not family." Andrew knew Neil could be touchy about such things at times when he wasn't fully sober, but the crestfallen look he got was a bit too much for Andrew. "You are a mess," he said.

"What else is new?" Neil said.

Andrew felt compelled to up the percentage, but instead he chose to ignore what he felt and said, "What's the verdict?"

"Hit my head pretty hard, despite the airbag," Neil said. He toyed with the bandage, lifting it up a little, and Andrew slapped his hand away. "Two fractured ribs. They want me to stay overnight."

"All this for groceries."

A few minutes later, a nurse came in to check on Neil and gave him more drugs for the pain. Andrew hadn't asked him how much he was hurting, but he fell asleep pretty quickly. Andrew sat in Neil's hospital room and made calls to figure out what had happened to the Maserati. He didn't want to think about Neil anymore. Neil and the feelings he brought and the inconvenience he could be and the trouble he invited. Neil was a full time job and Andrew was exhausted.

They spent the night and almost the entirety of the next day at the hospital. Neil was given his possessions back, which meant he had his phone again. He had unanswered messages from Nicky and Matt, neither of whom had bothered to ask Andrew if things were okay. Neil still had a tendency to sometimes ignore unimportant messages. But now he called them both to let them know what had happened and two hours passed just like that. When Neil and Andrew went home, they only had a day to themselves before Allison invited herself over to see Neil. Matt and Dan weren't far behind; Nicky cursed the ocean between them and Kevin didn't apologize for being away for a game. Even Katelyn called and Aaron managed to be civil for a minute, which was a huge feat for him. Andrew tolerated all of it because Neil considered these people his family and they made him feel better. The only person Andrew cared to see was Renee, but she couldn't get time off.

Two weeks later, when everyone was long gone and Andrew was making dinner, he damned any and all consequences and asked Neil, "Thoughts on marriage, Abram?"

Neil was sitting back on the sofa with a cat in his lap and a pillow pressed into his side. "Frivolous?" he said. "Lengthy."

"You really do need things spelled out," Andrew said with a glance in Neil's direction. Neil was already looking at him. "I'm talking about the pros and cons of marriage, not the excessive ceremony."

Neil was quiet and Andrew let him think on it. He sidestepped a cat in his way and continued with the food. Ever since the hospital, Andrew had had a lot of time to think. It wasn't  _marriage_ he wanted. That meant nothing to him. Some signatures on a piece of paper could never do this justice. No, it wasn't the sentiment he wanted. It was everything else. "I've never thought about it," Neil said at last, jarring Andrew from his own musings. "It's never been something I needed."

"Maybe we need it now." Andrew set Neil's plate on the coffee table in front of him. "Next time someone asks me how I'm your family, I don't want to give them a roundabout answer."

"Saying you're my boyfriend is not a roundabout answer."

Andrew stared at Neil. "I would prefer not to call myself that."

Neil stared at Andrew. "And marriage is the answer?"

"You got a better idea?" Neil said nothing and that told Andrew everything he needed to know.

They bickered about last names for a while. Andrew didn't mind hyphenating both of theirs, but he was not going to be Andrew Joseph Josten-Minyard. Saying that a few times out loud was enough. Neil rejected Minyard-Josten because he wouldn't be second. So they went back and forth again. At one point, Neil suggested combining their names and going with Josmin and Andrew told him a blatant no. Finally, they agreed to not change their names.

"I went through hell to be Neil Josten," Neil said. "And you told Neil Josten to stay. I'm not going to give that up for anything."

Andrew did nothing but up the percentage and let Neil eat his dinner. Sir moved from Neil's lap to Andrew's and King was content to sit on the floor at Andrew's feet. Dinner was a quiet affair and then they watched Kevin's game. Almost a month later, when Neil's ribs were completely healed and he wasn't in pain, they ended up at the courthouse. "Allison is going to kill me," Neil had said on the way. "Let her try," had been Andrew's response. He'd told Renee and Wymack what they were doing and Neil was allowed to tell whomever he pleased, but he hadn't called anyone. Andrew didn't care enough to tell the others. This wouldn't change anything.

Once the waiting was done and the papers were signed and Neil and Andrew were married, Neil turned to Andrew and said in smug Russian, "Hey, Andrew. Tell your nineteen year old self this is nothing."

"Hey, Neil. Stop talking," said Andrew and pulled Neil in for a kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> hmu on tumblr: andrewinyrd and cryinglarrie. leave a comment and kudos!


End file.
